


There And Back Again

by MarphasChappers, NicholasFlamelFan



Series: The Fun Factory of Insane Ideas [15]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bad Friend Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Bad Parent Sheriff Stilinski, Betrayed Stiles Stilinski, Betrayed Tony Stark, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Eichen | Echo House Is A Hydra Base, Hydra (Marvel), M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:54:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarphasChappers/pseuds/MarphasChappers, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicholasFlamelFan/pseuds/NicholasFlamelFan
Summary: Years ago, Stiles had been betrayed by his Pack and sent to Eichen. It led him on a long and painful journey to where he was now. Now? He had a family again for who he would do anything. After Thanos did his thing, he and Tony decided to go back in time to try and fix things. This is their story.
Relationships: Chris Argent/Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Stiles Stilinski, Peter Parker & Stiles Stilinski, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Stiles Stilinski
Series: The Fun Factory of Insane Ideas [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800934
Comments: 93
Kudos: 325





	1. Prologue

Stiles made his way down to Tony's workshop nervously. They had found a remote cabin in the woods and had modified it enough for them to live and be the mad scientists they were. It helped both of them to be away from the other survivors of Thanos' Snap. Stiles still remembered the noise it had made, echoing through his head. It kept him up at night and even brought him to Tony's bed more than once. Then again, on the whole scale of shitty things, the Snap barely reached number one. He still had Tony and that was all that mattered. They would find a way to deal with this.

He looked down at the dirty notebook in his hands leafing through the pages again and again as he neared the workshop where Tony was working on a new version of the arc reactor.

"Are you going to keep standing out there?" Tony called out without looking up from his soldering.

"Tio," Stiles spoke up nervously, sliding down against the wall behind Tony "You know how we were talking about combining science with magic?"

Tony glanced up from the arc reactor, blinking at Stiles "Yeah. And we never did because it's impossible."

"I don't think it is," Stiles shook his head and got up "I've been experimenting since... Well, since the world went to hell." He held out the small notebook "Look at this."

Tony looked through the notes, mouthing along with the words he was reading. His face cycled through a myriad of emotions before it settled on disbelief and hope "Fucking hell, this might actually be it, Stiles. This might work."

"I know," Stiles murmured, smiling shyly "I'm a fucking genius."

"Not as much of a genius as me," Tony grinned, ruffling Stiles' hair "But yes. You are a genius, foxy." He still remembered the first time he had called the kid that. Stiles had dropped what he had been holding and flinched violently. After that, he had been a bit more careful with the nicknames but after they got to know each other, Stiles eventually got used to the nickname and knew that Tony wouldn't make fun of him or what he went through.

Stiles huffed, trying to fix his hair "Hey, I was the one who figured this out."

"Yeah," Tony hummed "But you messed up that equation. It's unbalanced."

"What?" Stiles snatched back the notebook and looked through it "Oh, come on."

Tony laughed, patting Stiles' shoulder "Sorry, foxy."

Stiles grumbled under his breath and slapped Tony's hand away. They were silent for a moment before Stiles took a deep breath "Should we do it?"

"You know what?" Tony leafed through the book a second time and then a third "Yes, we should. We need all the time we can get to prepare for the purple grape. Hell, if people had listened to me and I had ignored them…"

Stiles turned his head to look at Tony with a fire burning in his eyes "We'll fix this. Even if we can't make them see… We're awesome together, so what are we waiting for? It's not like we have anything to lose, right?"

"If we die trying then at least we don't have to deal with Thanos coming back," Tony nodded "Or with the other survivors. They have been trying to find us ever since we settled here."

Stiles grimaced at the thought "Yeah. No, dude. I think it's best if we keep this between us. I don't know about you but I could see Captain Popsicle trying to get back to the Forties or something."

"Oh, fuck no. So, where do you think we should go?" Tony asked, frowning in thought.

"I think… around the time I went to Eichen, maybe?" Stiles spoke up hesitatingly. He really hated himself for saying it but that had been the change in his life… He had come out stronger for it.

"No way," Tony shook his head "No. I'm not letting you go through that again. Not Eichen, not those HYDRA bastards and not the possession. We're going back to Vanko. That should give us enough time and should be early enough for you, right?"

Stiles tilted his head, trying to place the timeline "That would be just after Peter's death. Before Derek started turning his pack…"

"Then that's where we will go," Tony nodded "You should be able to blame your personality changed on the fact that you set a person on fire. It would be believable enough, I think."

"You think that would work?" Stiles asked sceptically "I mean… Yeah, I have PTSD and shit but I doubt that it would be believable to anyone. No matter how much I want this to work."

Tony shook his head and placed his hand on Stiles' shoulder "Kid, normal teens ten to get PTSD from that. Nightmares at the very least."

"I'm not normal. And everyone involved seemed to know that. Shit, I faced off against Derek and Peter…"

"Back then?" Tony snorted "Were they even interested in what you were doing? As far as I know, they didn't know you were this amazing of a person. I think you can pull this off."

Stiles bit his lip and looked down at his hands "Yeah, my dad was barely home back then. Scott spent most of his time with Allison and Derek and his pack hated me. Not like they would care."

Tony sighed and let his hand wander to the back of Stiles' neck. He rubbed soothing circles and leaned his forehead against the younger male's "I'll get to you as soon as I can, I promise."

"I'm not sure if that's going to make things better or worse. In case you haven't noticed, you don't do subtle very well," Stiles pointed out.

Tony looked at him in mock offence, his hand coming to rest on his reactor "I'll have you know, Tails. I'm the picture of subtlety." They looked at each other before breaking into snorts of laughter. Tony slowly got himself back under control before he sobered up completely "We are going to do this. It's going to work. We're both working on this…"

Stiles let his head drop onto Tony's shoulder "I'm going to miss you… Dad."

The billionaire froze for a moment before he slung his arm around Stiles, pulling him closer "I won't give you enough time to really miss me, son."

"You'll find my number?"

"I'll set FRID…" Tony broke off, his throat closing up when he realised that JARVIS would still be around if they went back "I'll set JARVIS on it."

Stiles raised his eyebrow "You'll need my full name for that."

"You think I don't have it?" Tony asked, his tone bothering on amusement "Give me some credit, tails. I just don't know how to pronounce that monstrosity of a name."

Stiles gave an amused huff and buried his head in Tony's neck. He loved how close they were. After dealing with a pack of werewolves for years, he had become very tactile and HYDRA had robbed him of that. While it had taken years to become comfortable with human touch again, now Stiles loved to cuddle up to Tony or even just let their shoulders brush "Dad?" He shivered lightly, his hands clenching in Tony's shirt "Please… Try not to take too long. I don't think I can stand to be around Scott and the others for too long."

"Don't worry, kiddo. I'll make sure that you won't have to handle those idiots for longer than absolutely necessary."

Stiles sighed before he spoke again, his voice stronger than before "We have work to do, then."

"Yup," Tony agreed "And only a limited amount of time before the cabin gets stormed."

"Then let's go and save the universe…"

"Where would they be without their anti-heroes, right?" Stiles snorted, shaking his head.

"Well… Batman's MO is kind of your thing, so why not," Tony laughed "But you won't see me running around in tights anytime soon."

Stiles groaned "Thank God. I don't think I could stand another Rogers."

They both shuddered in sync before Tony ran a hand through his hair "Yeah, no thanks. I'm good on that front."

* * *

"Is it wrong that I wish that James were here?" Tony asked after they had started to gather materials and drawn up plans "Fuck, I wish we could have gotten to him and kept him as far away from Rogers as possible. I can't even…"

"We will, dad. We will find him and make him better," Stiles vowed before he froze, looking down at the equations with a pale face "There is something I didn't account for in the maths."

Tony looked up, a frown on his face "I don't like that look on your face, tails. Talk to me."

"I took into account that we have our memories but little else," Stiles gestured "If we stop most of what happened to me… Well, we're losing valuable resources."

"Your magic," Tony nodded, realising where this was going "And the serum… How would you allow for that?"

Stiles shook his head "I'm not sure we can."

"Maybe there is a way to bind in blood? Or we could try to take something with us. I'm reasonably sure that I would be able to re-create the serum and Extremis in the past…" he trailed off, shaking his head "But that wouldn't bring your magic back."

"Wait," Stiles exclaimed, sitting up straighter "How about we put in these." He scribbled down a couple of formulas and functions "I'm not a hundred percent but if we power those lines with magic, then we should be able to lock the serum, Extremis and my magic into out memories. Then they would get transferred and we'd only have to unlock them. It would probably make our younger bodies sick for a while but I think we should be able to do this."

Tony took a look at the formulas, added a few things and tried to change them around before he nodded "That could work. Actually, this is a stabiliser for the whole process. That addition took the chance of failure down to 55%."

"So we're doing this?" Stiles questioned, looking over at Tony wanting to make sure that the older man was still on board with this.

"We're doing this," Tony nodded, his expression hard.

* * *

A few days later, the two were standing in front of the time machine's screen, debating on testing the contraption. Everything they had needed to get done, they had managed the day prior… Everything apart from the final tests.

Stiles whirled around when he heard the front door splinter "Forget running test, we have to go now."

"How can we make sure they don't follow us?" Tony asked, tripping over his chair to get the machine ready.

Stiles tapped the computer, setting it to delete everything, making sure that it was progressing fast enough "I'm ready."

"Great. Come here," Tony gestured, hooking up Stiles to the machine while Stiles entered some last-minute variables, pouring his magic into it.

They could hear pounding footsteps trekking through the house before the machine beeped. Stiles looked over at Tony "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Tony nodded "Together?"

"Always."


	2. Second Beginnings

Stiles barely withheld a groan when he heard the window slide open. The wolves had left him alone the past week and he was more than happy about that. Had the serum been as painful the first time around? He really couldn’t remember. The week since he got back had been full of pain but also one of the sweetest he had in a while. They had done it… He and Tony actually managed to go back in time to their younger bodies and from what he had seen they managed to hit the right time as well.

“Stiles,” Derek spoke up, narrowing his eyes on the teenager in bed. The room smelt of sweat and pain “Scott said he hasn’t seen you in a week.”

“Well, maybe because I’m sick,” Stiles pointed out, waving his hand around. He bit his lip and immediately lowered his arm back to the bed. His muscles were still aching but he was glad that he was wearing a sweatshirt. At least his new muscle mass wasn’t showing that way. It would probably be a little hard to explain how he managed to buff up as much as he did in a week.

Not that many people cared. Hell, his father hadn’t even realised that Stiles hadn’t been in school for the past week and Scott had texted him once. That was about all the contact he had to the outside world since he got back. Had it always been as bad as this? He could barely remember more than the rough events and the last few months he spent with the pack. HYDRA had been very thorough in wiping most of his childhood from his mind. They had tried to make him a better version of the Winter Soldier. Bucky needed wiping more than him because compared to Stiles, he had been fighting them at first. Stiles, on the other hand, had been just tired of everything.

Stiles looked over at Derek “It’s not like Scott showed up. Why are you here, Derek?”

“Can’t I just…”

“You don’t like me,” Stiles cut him off “You made that point clear more than once. Aren’t you a big, strong Alpha now? Shouldn’t you go around building your pack now?”

Derek looked at him for a moment before he crossed his arm “How much do you actually know?”

Stiles raised his eyebrow at Derek before he gritted his teeth “Derek, I really don’t feel up to humouring you right now. Please, leave.”

“Stiles,” Derek’s voice held a hint of warning as he growled out the teenager’s name.

“I’m not lying, Derek,” Stiles sighed tiredly “I’m really not up to dealing with you at the moment.”

Derek was quiet for a moment, just looking at Stiles. There was something different about him, something dangerous. Also, Stiles’ scent had changed somehow. He wasn’t sure exactly what had changed since Stiles had always smelt liked chemicals and drugs but now it was different… Subtler and yet more obvious “What are you hiding?”

“What… I’m not the one keeping secrets,” Stiles exclaimed, shooting up in his bed. He let out a groan, almost falling backwards at the ache in his stomach muscles. Note to self, moving was a bad idea still. It felt like he ran a marathon – with all the muscles in his entire body. Even his jaw was achy “You want to know what I’m hiding? Then you tell me all your secrets.” When Derek looked away, Stiles let out a noise “See? Before you come here and demand answers, better look in the mirror. Now, leave.”

Derek clenched his hands before he turned around, jumping out of the window.

* * *

“Hello?”

“ _Are you feeling as fucked as I do?_ ”

Stiles relaxed when he recognised the voice “Tony…”

“ _Hey, kiddo. How are you doing?_ ” Tony asked, lying back on the sofa in his workshop.

“You have no idea,” Stiles laughed, burying his head in his pillow “There’s nothing that didn’t hurt. At least it’s getting better now.”

Tony’s lips twitched at the muffled voice “ _How have you been holding up? Anyone asking questions?_ ”

Stiles sobered up, rubbing at his eyes. He was feeling tired all of a sudden “I don’t really know. My dad hasn’t noticed that I’ve been missing school. Scott texted once and then sent Derek here.”

“ _I’m coming as soon as I can,_ ” Tony vowed seriously “ _I’m not leaving you there for longer than you have to be. I promise. I just need to wait out Vanko._ ”

“Don’t worry about me,” Stiles told him “I’ll be fine. Vanko is more important. Plus, I didn’t forget about the Palladium, Tony.”

Tony hissed through his teeth “ _I’m actually surprised that it isn’t that bad. Extremis sort of counteracted the worst of it but I still need to make a new arc reactor. But for that, I’d need to make some Starkanium._ ”

“Or you apologise for what Howard did, talk to the royal family of Wakanda and ask them for some Vibranium in exchange for your help with reinstating them in the world,” Stiles pointed out. It felt good talking to Tony. Especially since he had been pretty much alone for a week now with no one but his thoughts to occupy him. Well, that and movies but he had learned the hard way that some movies he had enjoyed back in the day, he couldn’t watch anymore “You could tell them why you need it or you could not. It’s really up to you but I think they would help. From what I heard about King T’Chaka he seems to be an awesome person and a fair king.”

Tony made a noise in the back of his throat “ _And how would I explain how I know about their super-secret country?_ ”

Stiles laughed lightly “You’re Tony Stark. Just do what you do best. Make shit up.”

“ _What would I do without you, kid?_ ”

“Probably forgive Cap,” Stiles spat out, shivering in disgust “And that Scarlet Bitch.”

Tony groaned “ _I don’t even want to think about that. What the hell am I supposed to do when the pirate approaches me this time? He already did before we got back._ ”

“Don’t think about it yet,” Stiles murmured “Just focus on Vanko for now. We can deal with the rest when the time comes. There’s a lot of plans to make.”

“ _That’s true…_ ” Tony sighed before straightening up when he heard heels clicking behind him “ _Shit. Pepper is coming. I have to go. I’ll call you soon, alright? Stay safe. And don’t get too annoyed with people around you. And text JARVIS. He wants to meet you._ ”

Stiles rolled his eyes fondly “Sure. Don’t slip up with Pepper, would you?”

“ _Hey, you’re the one with…_ ”

“You told James that he has a sexy ass after telling me you’d rather die than to admit anything to him,” Stiles pointed out “And then there was the time…”

Tony spoke up, his voice abnormally loud through the phone “ _I’m hanging up on you. Don’t blow anything up._ ”

“Pot calling kettle black,” Stiles grumbled, lowering the phone when the dial tone sounded. 

* * *

The Sheriff walked through the door, wrinkling his nose at the mess that was the kitchen. He hadn’t even realised that Stiles hadn’t cleaned up for the past couple of days and he hadn’t really bothered to clean either. It wasn’t something that he usually had to do.

“Stiles?” he called up the stairs. He hadn’t seen his son in almost two weeks and he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t noticed before “Stiles!”

Stiles appeared at the top of the stairs, carefully moving to allow his body to get used to his new muscles “Dad?” he questioned quietly, not really sure what to say to the man.

“What the hell…” the Sheriff blinked up at his son “When did you start working out?”

“Months ago,” Stiles told him easily.

The Sheriff raised his eyebrows “Right,” he shook his head in disbelief. He was sure he would have heard it if Stiles had changed that much. His son never stopped talking about things “I got a call from your school today. You called in sick a week ago.”

“That’s because I was sick,” Stiles pointed out.

“I’m not going to argue with you, Stiles,” the Sheriff shook his head in annoyance “I thought I told you that I didn’t want to hear anything from school this year.”

Stiles ran a hand through his hair “Look, I really wasn’t feeling well. I haven’t seen you in over a week, dad. And you always tell me not to bother you at work.”

The Sheriff narrowed his eyes “You’re going back to school tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” Stiles sighed, turning around to head back up the stairs. Just getting up for this had tired him out. He would have probably had more energy, had he managed to eat right but how the hell was he supposed to manage to eat enough for his metabolism without his dad finding out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, also... I made a Facebook group that is similar to my Discord server in case any of you are interested. It's called NicholasFlamelFan's Corner. I occasionally post Snippets there and on Tumblr (NicholasFlamelFan). It's a relatively new development, so I thought you'd like to join 
> 
> Nick


	3. Omega

Stiles sat in his Chemistry class, trying not to hyperventilate. He had forgotten how it was to sit in between this many people and he was slowly getting overwhelmed by the noise. The only reason he was at school today instead of trying to get used to his hearing was because his dad hadn’t stopped to listen to him. He looked up, still trying to slow his breathing when Danny leaned over to him “You good?”

“F – Fine,” he mumbled, his eyes darting to Danny’s face before returning to his shaking hands. He had finished the quiz easily but now he couldn’t stop thinking and thinking always made things worse.

Danny frowned in concern. He hadn’t seen Stiles at school all week and all of a sudden he comes back but seems to be on edge. He didn’t care whether he got into trouble or not… Stiles’ ragged breathing was distracting him from his work and he was surprised that none of the others had noticed yet “You don’t look fine. Maybe you should go home?”

Stiles shook his head “I’m fine, Danny,” he denied, clenching his hands into fists to try and lessen the tremors. He wished he could talk to Tony right now but if he left, he knew Harris would give him detention again and since he scheduled a talk with Tony about the arc, he really wanted to avoid it this time around.

“Yeah. Turning,” Scott exclaimed slightly to the right of Stiles, making him flinch a little.

Stiles glanced at Jackson who started at Scott in annoyance “Into…?” When Scott just looked at him, he sighed “Well, I think that if Lydia’s turning, she’s not the one that’s gonna need help.”

“What do you mean?” Scott frowned in confusion.

Jackson rolled his eyes just glad that Stilinski wasn’t joining in this time “Oh God. You’ve got it all backwards, McCall. When I was with Lydia, you should have seen the scratch marks she left on me.” He sent the other boy a smirk “What do you think she’s gonna do with a set of real claws? Heh.”

Mr Harris cleared his throat “This is a pop quiz,” he spoke up, glaring at his students in exasperation “If I hear anyone talk again, I may be tempted to give you detention for the rest of your high school career.”

Stiles choked on a breath and dropped his head to his hands, trying to tune out the world around him. Everything was just so much louder. Was this how it had been when he first had the serum? He couldn’t remember anything from that time, most of it having been wiped by HYDRA again and again until there was nothing left. They had done a better job with him and even the few memories he got back, he had had to work for.

“Mr Stilinski,” Harris narrowed his eyes on the boy. He had been watching him mess around since he had handed out the quizzes and had only waited for the boy to put a toe out of line “I’ll see you at 3:00 for your detention.”

Danny was about to speak up, bringing Stiles’ current condition to the teacher’s attention when he caught sight of Jackson “Dude – your nose. You okay?”

Jackson raised his hand to his nose when he felt the trickle and shot up immediately, stumbling past Harris and out of the classroom.

“Mr Harris?” Danny raised his hand.

“Focus on your paper, Mr Mahealani,” Mr Harris sighed without looking up.

“But sir…”

Harris let out a loud breath “One more word out of you and you will join Mr Stilinski in detention. Go. Back. To. Your. Quiz.”

Danny shot Stiles another worried look, seeing the boy clutch at his ears “Stiles is having a panic attack,” he said, finally making their teacher look up.

Harris stood up not moving from his desk “If this is an attempt to get out of taking the quiz or your detention, Mr Stilinski, it isn’t working. Everyone, get back to the quiz. You have ten minutes left.”

Stiles coughed, trying to breathe the way Tony had showed him but he was failing miserably. He shoved away from his desk, crumpling the paper in his hand as he blindly stumbled to the door. When Harris tried to stop him, he just shoved the paper into the man’s chest. He ran against the doorframe before he managed to fall out of the door, ignoring Harris calling after him.

* * *

“Hey, buddy,” Scott grinned at Stiles “Where were you last week?”

Stiles just looked at Scott for a moment before he went back to pushing his food around the plate “Sick. I told you that.”

“You couldn’t have texted?” Scott complained “I mean, I thought you wanted to find Lydia. What if I found some more leads?”

“You didn’t,” Stiles pointed out dryly “I heard you talking with Jackson earlier. Just let it go, Scott. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Scott narrowed his eyes “What is your problem?”

“Nothing, Scott,” Stiles sighed, giving up on trying to talk to his former best friend. He had forgotten how wilfully blind Scott was to his moods after Allison had come to town. Then again, he wasn’t sure whether Scott had changed or whether that had always been a problem. Sometimes he wondered how it would be to remember everything about his past – things that didn’t have to do with betrayal or Derek or his pack… “Nothing is my problem.”

“Fine,” Scott rolled his eyes before he looked over his shoulder, seeing Allison run out of the cafeteria “I gotta go.”

“Yeah, sure,” Stiles muttered and pulled out his phone. He was uncomfortably but thankfully not as anxious as he had been in Chemistry. Here, he managed to pick a place with his back to the wall that overlooked most of the room.

“Stiles.”

“Danny?” Stiles frowned when the other boy sat down across from him.

Danny smiled, concern still shining in his eyes “I just wanted to make sure you were alright. After earlier.”

Stiles grimaced “I’m okay.”

“Do you have panic attacks often?”

Stiles shrugged “I’m okay.”

“Obviously you’re not,” Danny pointed out “Does anyone know? Scott? Your dad?”

“No,” Stiles mumbled “I can deal with it. I don’t want pity.”

Danny tilted his head “Stiles…”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” he dismissed, pushing away the full tray of food “I need to go and grab my books.”

Danny grabbed Stiles’ wrist before he could walk past him, eyes narrowing at the flinch and the tenseness to Stiles’ body “Listen, I know that we’re not friends but… If you ever need to talk to someone – You know where to find me.”

Stiles licked his lips, swallowing past the lump in his throat. He had never been close to Danny before… Not even when he was brought into the pack during the Nogitsune incident “Thank you, Danny.”

“You’re not alone in this, Stiles,” Danny pointed out quietly “There’s always people who’re going to listen to you.”

“Yeah – I… Yeah,” Stiles nodded, hastily leaving the cafeteria.

* * *

Harris looked up when Stiles slunk into the room, trying to make it seem like he wasn’t close to bolting the moment someone looked at him the wrong way “Ah, Mr Stilinski. Sit.”

Stiles sank down on a chair towards the back of the room, putting down his notebook that he was holding “I – Sorry for this morning. I wasn’t… feeling very well.”

“A likely story,” Harris scoffed, crossing his arms. He moved closer to the boy, leaning onto a desk the row in front of Stiles “You see, Stiles. Since your father was so judicious in his dealings with me, I’ve decided to make you my personal project for the rest of the semester.” He ignored how Stiles paled at those words “You’re going to benefit from all the best that strict discipline has to offer.”

“But I didn’t mean to…”

Harris raised his hand “You never mean to do anything,” he pointed out “At the beginning, it might have been alright but your constant talking, moving and disturbing the class has gone too far. Now, give me your phone.”

Stiles wasn’t about to argue, realising that the argument wasn’t worth the pain it would bring and handed the phone over without a word. He fiddled with his pen, waiting for Harris to move back to his desk before burying himself in his research.

“I’ll be right back,” Harris sighed, getting up from his chair after close to an hour of supervising the detention. He shot a stern look at his student who had been suspiciously quiet for the time he had been here. Had he been anyone else, he might have actually been worried for the boy but this was most likely just another ploy to get out of trouble faster “If you’re not here when I get back, you’ll have detention until the end of your high school career, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Stiles nodded, not looking up from what he was doing.

Five minutes later, Stiles looked over at his phone when it started buzzing on Harris’ desk. He had been doodling, trying to work out some of the problems he and Tony had been having with the inclusion of Vibranium into the arc. For some reason using Starkanium was easier than Vibranium… It seemed like Vibranium was a lot more unstable. How Howard managed to make a shield was beyond him. He probably didn’t even realise all the potential Vibranium had and had gotten lucky that it behaved as normal metal would.

He bit his lip, debating on whether to risk answering the call before shrugging to himself “ _Stiles,_ ” Tony exclaimed through the speakers of the phone.

Stiles did nothing to hide the small, relieved smile “I told you that I was in detention, Tony.”

“ _But science,_ ” Tony pouted “ _Science is so much more important._ ”

“Can we do this later?” Stiles asked “I have a couple of ideas but…”

Tony shook his head mournfully “ _Pep is forcing me to be responsible. Apparently, there is some sort of gala that I’m expected to show up at._ ”

“Let me guess… You forgot?” Stiles smiled wryly.

“ _I did not forget… I might have temporarily – misplaced the information but I didn’t forget,_ ” Tony argued before changing the subject “ _Enough about that. What’s your idea, foxy?_ ”

Stiles grabbed the phone from the table and moved over to the board, making sure that Mr Harris wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He didn’t want to get into even more trouble for being on the phone but he also didn’t want to blow Tony off. After the day he had, he really needed to get lost in science for a bit and hear Tony’s voice. Spending so many years together made it hard to be apart.

“So, if I’m right you should be able to…” Stiles switched the call to video and perched it on his teacher’s desk while he started scribbling on the board. He was trying to put his thoughts and ideas into equations, trying to make Tony understand what he had found out. When he was done, he stepped back, letting his eyes wander across his handwriting, mouthing the formulas to check whether he made a mistake.

Tony whistled, having JARVIS run simulations with Stiles’ calculations in the background “ _I’m impressed, kid. How long did it take you to come up with that? We only talked about it yesterday._ ”

“About seven hours,” Stiles shrugged, the meaning behind his words not lost on the older man.

“ _Nightmares?_ ” Tony asked, sympathy swinging in his voice.

Stiles hummed dismissively “Nothing I’m not used to.” He looked up and froze when he realised that Mr Harris was standing in the doorway, staring at the board with a sense of disbelief that would have been funny if Stiles wasn’t freaking out internally. He had the tendency to get lost in science and his thoughts when he was working on a project. It had been a habit that he had been trying to break unsuccessfully. This was the reason he felt the need to be alert. Anyone could sneak up on him and he would only realise too late “I – I have to go.”

“ _Take care, Stiles. Text me or JARVIS when anything happens, alright?_ ”

“Yeah,” Stiles breathed before he hung up, holding out his phone to Mr Harris sheepishly.

Mr Harris looked at the phone before his gaze travelled to the writing on the board “When did you learn that? I – What even is this?”

“I shouldn’t have written it on the board,” Stiles avoided the question “I’m sorry. Sometimes I tend to… Well, get carried away.”

Harris narrowed his eyes “You changed.”

Stiles froze “Excuse me?”

“The panic attack this morning… the missing school? You have been ignoring Mr McCall since you came back,” Harris ticked off the arguments on his fingers.

“It’s nothing,” Stiles shook his head “This…”

Harris crossed his arms “I might not be your biggest fan.” He grimaced at that “But you’re still my student and it’s my duty as a teacher to try and help no matter how much I dislike you – or your father. I wasn’t going to say anything but just know that there are people to talk to. Even if it isn’t me.”

“Why does everyone care all of a sudden?” Stiles muttered in confusion. He never had many people care about him. Especially not since the whole shit with the werewolves started. His dad was constantly working and Scott was with Allison. They had been the only people who really cared about him. He hadn’t really seen Mrs McCall either.

Harris raised his eyebrows “Get out of here.”

“What?”

“Detention is over,” Harris waved him off, his eyes trailing back to the board “Get out before I change my mind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. This is going to be part of my early Christmas present to you guys. I did my best to write for as many Fics as possible for Christmas but the rest didn't work yet. For the Fics that haven't been updated in this wave, I'll try to get an update out till March (I have exams in February, so I should be able to get stuff done until March).
> 
> For those interested, feel free to join my Facebook Group (NicholasFlamel's Corner) where I post snippets of chapters I write, ideas I have and finished/abandoned Fics. Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/687956758591756


	4. Shape Shifted

“Stiles.” 

Stiles looked up from his tea, seeing Chris Argent standing at the booth he was occupying. Why the man was here at two in the morning, Stiles didn’t know. He didn’t necessarily care either. Maybe he was a little curious but by far not enough to ask.

“Do you mind?” Chris asked, gesturing to the seat across from him. 

Stiles studied him silently before he shook his head. 

Chris sat down across from the teenager he had been watching since the death of the former Alpha. Something had changed and Chris wasn’t sure what it was. Although it seemed obvious that the boy in front of him had a bad case of PTSD, maybe even insomnia if him being here was any indication. While he could probably put the blame on Peter’s death, this reaction seemed… more for some reason. He let out a sigh, leaning his elbows on the table “What happened to you? This can’t just be because of Hale.” 

Stiles blinked in surprise before a small, wry smile stole its way across his lips “You’re the first person to ask me that who knows what happened,” he admitted quietly “Not even the Sh... my dad noticed that anything was wrong.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

Stiles shrugged, stirring his tea “Not much to tell. You wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

Chris raised his eyebrows “Try me.”

“Why?” Stiles asked, looking up defiantly. He did trust Chris but he had to remind himself that this Chris wasn’t his Chris. Not yet. They hadn’t been through the same shit. At the moment, the man was still the enemy “Because you’ve been such a good person? You have been trying to hurt my pack – will be trying to hurt them. Why should I tell you anything?”

“Is this really just because of Mc…”

“This has nothing to do with Scott,” Stiles cut him off, sick of hearing about Scott. He hated how everything had been about him back then. Everything had always revolved around Scott until the Nogitsune came and it hadn’t “He betrayed me – Will betray me… Whatever.”

Chris frowned “Will betray you?”

Stiles hid his face in his hands “It’s complicated.”

“I know I did nothing to earn your trust but there’s something I can offer you. I’ll listen and whatever you say I’ll believe,” Chris pointed out. He wouldn’t normally talk to the boy but he was Allison’s age and the fact that he had been spiralling was getting to him. In part, it felt like it was his fault, Kate’s fault. A lot of things wouldn’t have happened had it not been for his sister and maybe Stiles would not have been brought into all this.

“Big offer,” Stiles mumbled, fishing out his phone. He bit his lip before he texted Tony.

It only took a minute for him to get an answer ‘ **If you think he should know, go for it. I’ve been thinking about telling Rhodey and Happy. They already noticed something… Pepper’s been asking questions as well but…** ’

‘ **But you don’t want her to know. I get it. If you need me at any point when you tell them, call me. Whenever it is. Promise me, Tony** .’

‘ **I promise if you do the same** ’ Tony texted back.

Stiles smiled faintly ‘ **Deal.** ’

“Okay,” he sighed and ran a hand through his hair “I hope you have time because this is a long story.”

* * *

Chris knocked back the glass of whiskey he had poured himself a couple of minutes ago. Sometime during Stiles’ story, he had gotten up to grab a bottle of alcohol. It sounded fantastic and yet... He didn’t think the boy even scratched the surface with his tale. Yes, he had told him a lot but somehow it felt like the worst part was still missing “That’s -”

“Told you that you wouldn’t believe me,” Stiles shrugged tiredly. He hated telling the story but Chris would be a good ally. He hadn’t been close to the man at all - mostly because of what happened to Allison but it was in his best interest to stop things from happening the way they did before. He got to keep his daughter and his wife if that was what he wanted.

“I do believe you,” Chris told the teen “I was going to say that it’s a lot to go through for a - how old were you again? Twenty-something?”

“Twenty-seven,” he murmured.

Chris frowned, trying to put together a timeline “Wait, does that mean that HYDRA kidnapped you at seventeen?”

Stiles smiled wryly “They didn’t need to do any kidnapping. Scott and the others handed me over. Well, they put me into Eichen which just happens to be a HYDRA base.”

“They never found out?”

“Dunno,” Stiles shrugged, acting as unconcerned as possible “Don’t necessarily care either. They dropped me long before that - after the Nogitsune.”

Chris chucked another glass of whiskey “That’s another thing. How the hell did that happen? I mean… You don’t just get possessed by millennia-old demons every day.”

“Lots of coincidences,” Stiles grumbled, looking at the whiskey longingly. He blinked and looked down at his hands “Then again, the fates loved to fuck with me, so maybe it was planned from the beginning.” He tugged at his hair in annoyance “It wouldn’t surprise me. Ever since Scott was bitten everything just went downhill.”

Chris studied the broken man in front of him. So much pain and he was even younger than him - even if not by much. He wondered how hard it was to be back in his sixteen-year-old body. From what Chris remembered, being a teenager was horrible. All those feelings and all those hormones “Why did you tell me? Why did you come back?”

“Because you asked,” Stiles shrugged, deciding to ignore the second question. He wasn’t ready to talk about Thanos and the - the Snap. It was bad enough that he could still hear it echoing through the whole universe as more and more people turned to dust “And while I didn’t like you much in the past, you’re one of the few hunters that are decent. Just a bonus that you believe me.”

“Decent?” Chris asked, narrowing his eyes. He wasn’t sure whether to be offended or accept the judgement.

Stiles’ eyes flashed as he focussed on the Argent “You’re not following orders blindly - otherwise, Scott would already be dead but you’re still an Argent.”

“I didn’t know what Kate did,” he defended himself.

“I’m not talking about what she did,” Stiles snarled “I’m talking about the old bastard who thinks it’s alright to kidnap humans just because they can be used as a message.”

Chris paled “Gerard… What…?”

Stiles inhaled sharply, silently screaming at himself to calm down “It won’t happen as far as I’m concerned.” He got up from the armchair he was seated in and glanced at Chris out of the corner of his eye “This stays between us. No one can find out. Not your wife, not Gerard and definitely not the pack or Allison.”

“I wasn’t going to tell anyone,” Chris told him seriously “This is your story but… If you ever need help…”

“What?” Stiles smirked, scoffing “You’re going to come and help me?”

Chris raised his eyebrows and crossed his arm “Yes. I will.”

Stiles froze in surprise, not having expected that. He still believed that the man would use what he told him to his own gain. Not that he cared much. Victoria and Allison’s survival was a small price to pay and he wouldn’t be here long enough to witness the fall out of it anyway. The moment Tony came for him, the pack was on their own.

He swallowed and nodded sharply “Thank you.”

* * *

Stiles was staring at the almost blank wall across from his bed. He was debating on what to do about Jackson. After the Sheriff had left, he realised that Isaac’s father must be dead by now. A part of Stiles had completely forgotten that Jackson had turned into a Kanima but then again, most of his earlier memories were still a little hazy.

“I could tell Derek about the Kanima,” he muttered to himself, his mind going into overdrive as he was thinking through several scenarios “No. He would never listen to me. I could just let it play out… But then the station will be hit and…” Stiles ran a hand through his hair and started pacing “What the hell am I supposed to do?”

On the one hand, he kind of wanted to help Derek to become a better Alpha… He had never been the one he was mad at. After Tony freed him from HYDRA, Stiles had looked up the remaining Hales. They hadn’t been near Beacon Hills since they left. Not Cora, not Peter and not Derek. Chances are they never knew what happened to him.

But there was still the problem of Derek not trusting him and his Betas - had he bitten the other two already? - didn’t so much care for him either. Still, he wanted to save Erica and Boyd this time around. If anyone deserved a happy ending it was Derek and his pups. 

Before he knew what he was doing, Stiles had his phone in his hand, dialling the Alpha’s number. When had he gotten it? Maybe it was from one of his research binges… It would have been easy to find Derek’s number after he had gotten arrested. 

The phone rang twice when Stiles was hit with a flood of doubts. What was he doing? He couldn’t tell Derek… What made him think the Alpha would believe him? He never did before, so why should it be different now? Hell, he was sure that Derek hated having him around. He lowered the phone, ending the call before it could connect “I can’t tell him,” Stiles whispered before he turned back to the wall he had started on. Bits and pieces of events he could remember and people who were involved in whatever the monster of the week was. There were victims and places he was marking on the map of the county, trying his best to piece together the next two years. His spotty memory was making it hard but the more he wrote and put up, the more he remembered.

He was so lost in thoughts that he didn’t hear his window open and Derek slide in. The Alpha blinked at the chaos in the room that had been so clean only days ago “What the…?” he frowned, glancing at Stiles who was staring at bits of paper, muttering under his breath “Stiles.”

Stiles flinched violently, almost tripping over the stack of books that was lying at his feet “Derek,” he squeaked, trying to calm down his racing heart. He still wasn’t doing too well with being startled and it was only thanks to Bucky that he didn’t go around attacking people who snuck up on him. It had come in handy with all the research binges he had gotten into with Tony “What are you doing here?”

Derek held up his phone “You called?”

“I… No, I -” Stiles broke off before he looked at the Alpha’s face. Was it him or was Derek hiding concern in his eyes? He was sure he had never seen that before… “There’s something you need to know. I’m not sure how to tell you though.”

Derek narrowed his eyes and waved his hand at Stiles “Does it have anything to do with you being all… different?” 

Stiles nodded and ran a hand down his face tiredly before he nodded at the wall he had been scribbling on and connecting the events with string. The whole thing looked like a mess but if he was being honest with himself, his life was a mess. Why should this be any different? “Take a look at this.”

“What is it?” Derek stepped closer, letting his eyes wander over Stiles’ hurried writing “Kanima? Stiles, what the hell is going on?”

“It’s a long story,” Stiles sighed, moving over to sit on his bed “A very long story.”

“It can’t be that long,” Derek pointed out, curiosity welling up inside of him. He knew that there was something very different about Stiles. Something that hadn’t been there when he had helped to set fire to Peter. 

Stiles snorted “You have no idea.” With that, he started telling Derek the same story, he had told Chris earlier today. This time, he included a few more details but still left out the majority of his life with HYDRA and the real reason he travelled back.


End file.
